


Oh but your candles they burn like stars

by lysiabeth



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Fluff, Hanukkah, holiday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 00:49:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17294513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lysiabeth/pseuds/lysiabeth
Summary: There’s a grainy photo of Batman and Robin in the bottom-left corner, as well as a medium sized headline about the break in at Gotham United Bank, and although Jason knows Bruce isn’t vain enough to do it, he wonders if he does read those stories on his way through the paper like he knows Alfred does.





	Oh but your candles they burn like stars

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays Ezra, and I really hope you like this small piece!!
> 
> Also I don't know too much about the celebration of Hanukkah, so most things in this piece are based off things I asked friends and (to get spellings and what not correct) Google. If there's anything wrong or in need of fixing up please please let me know!
> 
> Otherwise, enjoy.
> 
> (Also dates for this are based on the 2019 dates for Hanukkah, which is why it falls so close to the xmas holidays)

It’s a slow, cold afternoon some days before they’re due to break up for the holidays, and Jason counts the lines on his book until he finishes the chapter when he raises his head, disturbed by the sound of the door at the front of the classroom being opened.

 

Ms McKinley walks in, small kitten heels pattering on the ground, a large clear box in both hands.

 

Jason frowns at the box, frowns down at his book, and frowns at the box again.

 

The class around him has quietened down; the girls at the front all sat at their own desks now, the boys in the back-row have shoved their game boys into their satchels, watching for what is clearly going to be a deviate away from the Introduction to American History.

 

“Class.” Ms McKinley smiles. All wide across perfect teeth with glossy lips, one of those young teachers but hardened from a few years of looking over fourteen year olds, and at her voice the few remaining whispers throughout the room dissipate.

 

“I figured, with it being so close to the holidays and with you all having done so well in the final, we could do a lesson creating some paper decorations; my favourite thing about this season always used to be cutting out paper snowflakes or making my own Christmas cards for my family, and I thought perhaps you would all enjoy it too.” She explains, pulling the lid off the box to showcase an array of thick card, acrylic pains, felt-tip pens and glitter.

 

A whole load of glitter.

 

Jason sinks lower into his seat as the girls at the front of the class make excited squealing sounds, the chain Bruce had gifted him last Hanukkah sitting heavy on his collarbones. Jason crouches down lower in his seat, pulls open his book again, and continues reading. Ms McKinley continues talking to the class, giving them ideas on what they could create and that any mess they create they have to clean up before the final bell. The class begins to move - all making a beeline for the box of wonders on the front desk, and Jason watches over the top of his book, quickly averting his gaze when Ms McKinley catches it.

 

It’s too late. She’s making her way over to his desk with a look of concern on her features, and Jason slowly closes his book, keeping his index finger inside on his page, giving her a polite smile as she comes to lean her hip on his own desk.

 

“Mister Todd? As interesting as your book looks, surely you could save it for after class?” She asks, and Jason shrugs.

 

“I’m not really one for arts and crafts, Ms McKinley. Besides, there’s not many Jewish or Hanukkah themed things I think I could make.” He explains, watches as a look of curiosity and then embarrassment washes over her features, before his teacher schools them to something of sympathy.

 

“I’m sure there must be something; you’re welcome to use my computer to look for some inspiration if you like.” And Jason would rather do anything but; just another thing to add to the whispers at lunch time, if you ask him. It’s bad enough being a Crime Alley Rat who’s now Bruce Wayne’s new son - researching arts and crafts on the teacher’s computer is bound to have no positive outcomes for him.

 

“I just… Can I please just read? Or something?” He asks, puts on his best smile and the voice he always uses on Alfred to stay up past his bedtime to finish his final chapter, hopes that Ms McKinley remembers the ninety-eight percent he had gotten in their last test and that she’ll just let it slip.

 

She seems to contemplate it for a while. Looks around the class at the girls drawing the outlines of pine trees in the green card and the boys hogging all of the felt-tip pens for their own plans, then back down at him.

 

“Sure.” Is all she says, and then she’s being called away by Georgie Bright who’s holding up the beginnings of what’s bound to be an intricate snowflake chain, and Jason is left alone again to open up his book. It’s not like he’s the only Jewish kid at the school; of the six-hundred or so students, there’s at least twenty others, but he’s the only one in the Intro to American History class, and even then - most members of the Gotham elite, no matter what you may have in common with them, will always turn down their noses on someone they can tell isn’t really one of  _ them _ .

 

He pushes out the noises of the class. Finishes three chapters over the course of the lesson and grudgingly placed it in his own satchel when the last bell rang. He’s good at doing that, too: putting everything away quickly enough at a teacher’s dismissal so he can be the first one out of the school doors come home time, quick to slide into the back of whatever car Alfred has driven that day in silence so he can get away from the stifling walls of Gotham Academy. It sucks, really. He’d much rather hang around after and talk to his favourite teachers, but he’d also do anything to miss out on watching everyone in their respective groups make plans with no space for him.

 

And it’s fine. He has Eddie to hang out with and even Connor Hawke every now and then, and being Robin is enough after school fun for him anyways.

 

“Miss Kane will be joining us this evening, if you recall.” Alfred says, some minutes into the car trip home, and Jason can’t stop his grin at the thought of his - Aunt? - coming to visit for the first night of Hanukkah. He’d brushed past Bruce this morning who had been contemplating which surface to place the Menorah on for this year’s Hanukkah, promising he could light the first candle if his room was clean before dinner.

 

He hadn’t mentioned Dick coming around, though. Probably busy with the Titans or something else, but still - it would have been nice to see his brother, if only for a short time throughout the evening.

 

“Are any of the other Kane’s coming?” Jason asks, leans forward in his seat to rest his forearms between the driver’s and passenger one in the front, and Alfred gives him a passing side-glance. They’re turning out of the city now, heading towards the long road that will take them to the Manor, and Jason’s happy to stay in his position to watch the space between the townhouses get bigger and bigger, and the trees get larger and larger.

 

It’s such a paralysing difference to what he’s used to. Clean air and not a skyscraper in immediate sight. He’s been living with Bruce for nearly three years now, and some days he’s still convinced he’s going to wake up and it all be a dream, him finding Catherine on the floor like he did, coming to the realisation he’s all he has left for himself.

 

He coughs next to Alfred, pulls himself back into his seat, and tries to rub his now-clammy hands on his pants. He can spot the Manor in the distance. Bruce’s Land Rover is parked out the front, for once, and Alfred parks the town car up beside it, the engine not even off before Jason is bounding inside.

 

“Remember what Master Bruce said about your bedroom!” He hears Alfred calls out, and Jason rolls his eyes as he makes his way up the staircase two at a time.

 

\------------------

 

The house smells of frying oil when Jason finally comes downstairs, and he can hear a warm laugh ringing out from the kitchen area. He grins.

 

“Master Jason, I wondered what was taking you so long. I’ve just finished the first batch of latkes if you’d like to help Miss Kate plate them up.” Alfred says, wipes one hand on his apron as he checks the temperature of the oil with the other. Kate is sat up on one of the bench chairs, hair drawn up in a tight bun and dressed in a deep blue pant suit, though her blazer is missing and blouse looks ruffled. Even Bruce is in the kitchen, reading the morning paper again, but he sends Jason a quick smile.

 

“Room all tidy?” Bruce asks, though doesn’t avert his eyes from the paper when he does so, and Jason nods.

 

“Yeah, B. Room tidy.” He says, and then makes his way to Kate to give her a hug. Her strong arms wrap around his head, she smells like perfume and her own Star of David necklace catches Jason’s eye. His stomach flips; remembers that the matching one to hers is what he wears, passed onto him from Bruce when it once belonged to Martha Wayne, the chain for it new but the Star the exact same, and when he pulls away from Kate she ruffles his hair.

 

“Hey, champ.” She says to him, then turns back to face Alfred to reply to something they were already discussing before he arrived. He makes his way to Bruce; slides the chair out from under the kitchen table slowly and perches himself on it, reading the front page of the paper as Bruce reads whatever is within.

 

There’s a grainy photo of Batman and Robin in the bottom-left corner, as well as a medium sized headline about the break in at Gotham United Bank, and although Jason knows Bruce isn’t vain enough to do it, he wonders if he does read those stories on his way through the paper like he knows Alfred does.

 

“Good day at school?” Bruce asks, finally folds up the paper and places it on the table in front of him, and Jason nods.

 

“Same as usual. You know, everyone’s just ready for the holidays I guess.” Jason says, and Bruce nods.

 

“And are you? Ready for the holidays?” Bruce asks, and Jason shrugs.

 

“Would be better if my holidays were now, you know, but… It’s fine. At least I still have New Year’s to look forward to.” Jason says, and Bruce hums at him. That reminds him; Jason turns in his seat, back to look at Kate and Alfred, and calls out,

 

“Hey Kate, when did you say Beth was going to be back?” 

 

Kate pauses where she’s trying to sneak a ripped up piece of latke into her mouth, and drops it onto the napkin in her lap.

 

“She’s hoping she’ll be here to light the last candle on the Menorah with us, and have the final night of celebrations with us too. Couldn’t get away from work to come sooner, kiddo.” Kate explains. Jason nods. He’s not as close to Beth as he is to Kate; the former away from Gotham most of the time, as opposed to Kate who’s at the Manor whenever she can be, but he does enjoy her company.

 

He knows Bruce does, too. One day he will get those stories out of Kate about the three of them growing up, but whenever he asks these days Kate just winks at him and tells him in good time.

 

“Speaking of…” Jason trails off, turns to Bruce with an excited glint in his eye, and Bruce huffs out an affectionate sigh.

 

“Let Alfred finish his cooking, then we will light the first candle. And then we will start the first night of celebration, okay?” Bruce asks, stands to his full height from the table, and making his way over to the bench to pour himself a glass of tea from the pot Jason hadn’t even known was there.

 

He can feel the excitement buzzing through him, stays sat at the table until Alfred announces he has enough latkes to last them through until next Hanukkah, and then the four of them make it into the main dining room, where Bruce has set the Menorah up on one of the three-legged tables at the window looking out onto the lawn. It’s an old thing, but beautiful and kept sparkling by Alfred’s hand, and Alfred dims the lights by the door so that an eerie but warm light fills the room around them.

 

“Would you still like to do the honour, Jay-lad?” Bruce asks, pulls out the candle Jason assumes is going to serve the purpose as the shamash, and Jason nods. The wick crackles slightly as it’s lit, and then Bruce is handing it to Jason, who holds his breath as he lights the first candle, Kate and Alfred watching on as Bruce stands in close proximity beside him.

 

All that’s missing is Dick, Jason thinks, as the candle sparks to life where it’s sat, and Kate lets out a happy sigh as the first night of Hanukkah is welcomed within the Wayne Manor. Jason places the shamash carefully in its place, and steps back, proud of his work for some reason.

 

“Shall we say our prayers in here, or do we want to return to the kitchen?” Alfred asks, mostly to Bruce, and Bruce looks to Kate and then to Jason before coming to a decision.

 

“Let’s do it here, and then eat. I was hoping Dick would be here but… Well, at least if we put off eating for some time, he may still make it for dinner. Sound good?” Bruce asks, and Jason nods as Kate also hums in agreement, and then they form a half-circle around the window, Bruce’s deep voice carrying through the halls of the Manor as he starts.

 

It’s wonderful. Jason thinks he could do this at the Manor every year for the rest of his life. And if he’s too full some hours later and too hyped up on sufganiyot to go out on patrol, well - Bruce doesn’t say anything. Besides, it’s nearly the holidays; the two of them maybe deserve a night off.


End file.
